


We're All Saints and Sinners

by magicsophicorn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Seven Deadly Sins, Swan Queen Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-14 13:43:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5746000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When people in Storybrooke start acting strangely it's up to Emma and co to investigate. But will they figure out what's wrong before it's too late? And what happens if they themselves are affected?</p><p>(Written for Swan Queen Weeek - 7 Deadly Sins)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lust

In the dark a figure moved.

Shrouded in a black cloak, and illuminated only by the flickering light of seven candles on the floor, they worked. The only sound was the scrape of a mortar and pestle as they ground a purple crystal into dust.

When all that remained of the crystal was a fine powder, the sorcerer took a knife, sliced open their hand and let the blood drip into the bowl. Mixing the contents with their finger, they turned and began smearing the concoction onto the floor, connecting each alternate candle with a thin line of deep shimmering purple until it formed a seven point star.

Setting the bowl aside the figure picked up a large hour glass, filled with blood red sand, and placed it in the centre of the star.

They removed their hood and stood at the first point of the star.

"Sunt magno numero peccatorum meorum miserebitur."

They moved to the second point.

"Ipsud volo esse pure."

Then the third.

"Aufer a me peccatorum meorum miserebitur."

The fourth.

"Auditui meo dabis virtuosus."

To the fifth.

"Ut inimicos meos uinci."

The sixth.

"Offero sanguis meus."

And finally the seventh.

"Ut harena perficere commutatio!"

As the figure stepped into the centre of the star, the lines on the floor glowed. The sorcerer picked up the hour glass and turned it over, setting it back on the floor once more. As the first few grains of sand fell in the timer, the lines on the floor changed from purple to red.

The caster's lips curled upward into a half smile. It had begun. And when the sand ran out it would be complete.

They turned and left the room.

\-------------------------------------------

Emma sighed and pushed her hair back. She couldn't wait to go home. Today had been the longest day ever.

First she'd had to go and try to settle some dispute between Edward Marsden and George Black, two neighbours who had apparently both been princes back in the Enchanted Forest, and were arguing about the boundary between their gardens because Edward wanted to build a hot tub. After half an hour of angry yelling, and handcuffing Edward to a fence post after he took a swing at George, Emma had come to the conclusion that what they were actually arguing about was which one of them was the best 'catch' (although she really hated that phrase), and that really they were just trying to impress each other. So once they'd calmed down enough for her to let Edward out of the handcuffs, she'd let them off with a warning on the condition that they go and see Archie, both separately and together. It would be the weirdest couples therapy ever, considering they weren't (yet) a couple, but she was pretty sure it would do the trick.

After that she'd had to go and rescue a cat from a tree. When she had first started working for the Sherriff's office she'd kind of assumed that that only happened in the movies, but it was surprising how often she had to do it. The stupid animals never seemed to get that she was there to help though, and she had a whole bunch of fresh scratches on her hands to prove it. She'd definitely have to recommend that the fire department starting dealing with those calls from now on, surely they were better equipped for that after all?

Then there had been this month's budget meeting, which were always the most boring hours of Emma's life and felt like they lasted for eternity. Although on the plus side Regina had been sitting opposite her today, wearing one of her trademark 'my-shirt-is-open-a-few-buttons-too-many-and-yet-somehow-on-me-it-looks-classy-not-slutty' outfits, which Emma was definitely a fan of. Although she was a fan of pretty much everything Regina wore, so that probably wasn't saying much.

Then after the budget meeting she'd been heading back to the station when she'd accidentally stumbled upon Will Scarlett attempting to break into the library, which was ridiculous considering he was kind of dating Belle, who ran the library and therefore had a key. She had managed to chase him as far as the forest, but then she'd lost him and had to walk back to the station feeling sweaty and gross and frustrated. If she could be bothered to get one of those pedometer wrist things it would probably be telling her she'd done about a million steps today.

And as if all that wasn't bad enough, now she had to write up reports about every single thing she'd done that day. This job was the worst.

But at least she had a perfect evening of alone time, beer, pizza and Netflix to look forward to, since Henry was staying the night with his grandparents. It would be heaven. She just had to make it through, she glanced at the clock, two more hours first.

Emma let her head fall forwards and hit the desk with a soft _thunk_.

"Hey Emma, wow you look beat."

She didn't bother to look up to reply.

"You have no idea, Rubes."

Ruby laughed.

"Why don't you go home early? I'm on dispatch tonight so I'll call you if anything comes up."

"Ruby, you are the best friend a girl could ever have."

Emma finally looked up just in time to see Ruby smirk.

"I know."

\----------------------------------------

Kicking off her boots and flopping down onto her couch was the best part of Emma's day so far. She'd picked up a pizza on the way home, and it sat on her coffee table next to a beer and the TV remote. She wouldn't have to move a muscle for the entire evening and she was looking forward to it with a vengeance.

She had just flicked on the TV and taken her first bite of delicious, hot, gooey pizza, when her phone began to buzz and play a familiar tune.

_'I'm a bad bitch, I'm a, I'm a bad bitch…'_

Emma smiled at the personalised ring tone despite herself. If it had been anyone else calling she would have ignored them entirely. Well except perhaps the Station, she'd probably get fired if she ignored a work call.

She dropped the slice of pizza, wiped her fingers on her jeans, and picked up the phone.

"Hey R'gina," she mumbled, still chewing her mouthful of pizza.

"Em-ma," Regina purred, sending shivers down her spine. It was hot enough when she called her 'Miss Swan', but this new habit she had of dragging out her name was a whole other level of arousing.

"I was calling to invite you to my house for dinner, but I can hear that you're already eating…"

Emma swallowed. Now this was a dilemma. On the one hand there was her perfect evening of laying on the couch doing absolutely nothing, but then on the other hand there was Regina and her exquisite cooking… But that involved moving. 

In the end, of course, the thought of Regina and her food won. It always would.

"No, no I'm not eating, I'd love to come round."

"Excellent. I'll see you in thirty minutes then."

Emma hung up and dropped the phone on the table. With a sigh she pulled her boots back on and shut the lid of the pizza box.

At least it wasn't like Regina would want to go for a run or something. Probably. So she'd still get to sit on her ass, just on Regina's couch instead of hers, and with wine instead of beer.

Grabbing her keys and trusty red leather jacket (which Regina seemed to hate and therefore made Emma want to wear it all the time), Emma left the apartment.

\-------------------------------------------

When Regina opened her front door Emma was speechless. Truly, utterly, speechless.

Regina usually wore some impressive outfits but this… this was something else. She was wearing a black, strapless, floor length evening gown with a plunging neckline. Her now shoulder length hair was all brushed to one side. Emma had seen her in power suits, dresses, and even in some of her Evil Queen outfits, but nothing could have prepared her for seeing Regina like this. Emma was suddenly painfully aware of her faded tank top and skinny jeans covered in greasy pizza stains.

"Uh, I didn't realise this was a formal event," Emma mumbled as she stepped past Regina into the hallway.

"Do you like it?" Regina asked, smoothing her hands down her sides.

That had to be some kind of trick question. Of course she liked it. She'd be seeing visions of it for days to come every time she closed her eyes, that was for sure. She couldn't tell Regina that though.

"You look incredible Regina. What's the occasion?"

Regina shrugged.

"No occasion. I just felt like dressing up."

Emma didn't really know what to say that. She was kind of glad Regina hadn't told her to dress up as well. She always felt kind of out of place in formal wear, as though any minute someone would call her a street urchin and kick her out or something. Plus dinner with just her and Regina in evening gowns would feel an awful lot like a date, and Emma didn't think she could bear getting her hopes up like that.

"So what's for dinner?" She asked instead, frowning as she realised that she couldn't smell anything cooking. Usually Regina's house always smelled like some kind of food, especially at dinner time.

"Mmm well you see I had something else on the menu for tonight instead..."

Regina was prowling towards her and it wasn't until she pressed their bodies together that Emma realised what was happening. Before she could react Regina had grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. She barely had time to respond, and was only just beginning to kiss back when Regina stepped away from her. Emma whimpered involuntarily.

"You know perhaps you're right, maybe this dress is too formal after all."

Regina reached up to her side and pulled the zipper down on her dress. She let go of the material and it fell to the floor. 

If Emma had been a cartoon character her jaw would have been on the floor as well.

Regina was standing in front of her in a sheer lace strapless bra and panties, with stockings and suspenders. She still had her heels on.

Emma felt light headed. She had fantasised about this so very many times, but none of them had come anything close to the reality.

Regina smiled seductively and beckoned to Emma with her finger, then turned and headed upstairs. Emma followed automatically, as if pulled by an invisible string.

As soon as they reached Regina's bedroom she grabbed Emma by the hips, spun her around, and pushed her down on to the bed.

"You're wearing too many clothes," Regina growled.

With a flick of her wrist Emma was suddenly enveloped in purple smoke. When it cleared she was completely naked.

She was about to protest but then Regina was above her on her hands and knees, and looking at her with such burning desire that Emma forgot all about anything else.

Regina lowered her body down on to Emma's and kissed her. This time Emma was ready for it and she kissed back, her tongue caressing Regina's as they explored each others mouths, one hand tangled in Regina's hair and the other roaming her back and down to her ass.

Regina kissed her jaw, her neck, then trailed kisses down to her breasts. Emma moaned as Regina circled her tongue around her nipple then sucked it into her mouth, her teeth grazing lightly over the stiff peak. She switched her mouth to the other breast, her fingers coming up to play with the moist flesh she'd left behind.

Emma grabbed Regina's hips with both hands and tried to manoeuvre her between her legs, desperate for some kind of friction there.

Regina looked up at her and licked her lips, then pushed Emma's hands away and began trailing kisses down her torso. Every muscle in Emma's body tensed the closer Regina's mouth got to where she wanted it most of all.

Emma's hips jerked upwards at Regina's first open mouthed kiss on her sex. She was so tightly strung that she didn't think she could handle much teasing.

"Please Regina, please," Emma panted, not able to form anything more coherent through her arousal.

Regina swiped her tongue through Emma's folds then began flicking it over her aching clit. Emma's hips jerked and she grabbed the back of Regina's head, urging her to continue. She writhed in pleasure as Regina licked and sucked, exploring every inch of her cunt with her tongue.

When Regina pressed two fingers inside her, curling them just right, Emma tumbled over the edge, hips jerking wildly, screaming Regina's name.

She lay there on her back, breathless and panting as Regina kissed her way back up her body. When they kissed again Emma could taste herself on Regina's tongue.

Emma's entire body felt like jelly. She wasn't sure she'd ever be able to move again.

Regina laid down on her side next to her, her head resting on Emma's shoulder, and began drawing random patterns on Emma's abs with her fingertips as Emma struggled to get her breath back.

When she was finally able to move Emma turned on to her side to face Regina. She was still wearing her underwear and Emma thought that should probably change.

She reached around Regina's back to the clasp of her bra.

"May I?"

Regina smiled and nodded. Emma undid the clasp, unable to look away as the lace fell to the bed, revealing Regina's perfect breasts which Emma had yearned to see and to touch for so many years.

Emma ran her fingertips over the newly exposed flesh, revelling in the feeling of Regina's skin, trying to memorise it.

Then Emma yawned.

Oh god, what a way to kill the moment.

But instead of being offended Regina laughed and pulled at the bed covers so that they could get underneath them. And if that wasn't surprising enough, Regina then wrapped an arm over Emma's stomach, urging her to turn on to her side so that she could press up against her back. Emma had always imagined that Regina would be the little spoon, not the big spoon. Not that she minded either way, it was just surprising.

Emma could feel Regina's nipples hard against her back and felt another flare of arousal hit her. If she weren't so tired she'd definitely do something about that.

She yawned again and her eyes drifted closed.

She had definitely changed her mind. Forget pizza and Netflix, _this_ was heaven. She had just had mind-blowing sex with Regina freaking Mills, and now she was going to get to sleep in the biggest, comfiest bed she'd ever experienced in her life.

It really didn't get much better than this.

Emma was just drifting off to sleep when she heard a familiar, and very unwelcome noise.

_'Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman! Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman!'_

Emma groaned and buried her face in her pillow. No, no, no, no. It was so unfair. She just wanted to sleep. She felt Regina sit up next her.

"Emma what is that noise? Is that your phone?"

"Yes," Emma mumbled around a mouthful of pillow.

"What is that ringtone?"

Emma sat up with a groan.

"It's the original Batman theme tune. It's my ring tone for when the Sheriff's Station calls. What? It helps motivate me." She added the last part defensively at Regina's raised eyebrow.

She stumbled out of bed and over to a chair in the corner where Regina had apparently magicked her clothes to earlier. After a minute or so of fumbling clumsily with her jacket she managed to get the phone out and answer it.

"Ruby, this had better be good."

"Sorry Emma, I know you were looking forward to a relaxing night, but there's been an incident at Granny's. I don't know all the details but someone's in hospital and it sounds like magic might have been involved so you should probably check it out. Should I call Regina too so she can help with the magic part?"

Emma glanced over to the bed where Regina was laying on her side, head propped up on one elbow, bare breasts on display, and watching Emma intensely.

"No that's alright I'll tell her. I mean, call her. I'll call her. If you could let Granny know I'll be there soon. I'll go to the hospital afterwards. Thanks Ruby."

"No problem Ems."

Emma hung up the phone and dropped it on the chair, then started to get dressed.

"Duty calls. There's been some kind of magical hoo-ha, and someone's in hospital. Will you come with me? I could use your help with the magic part."

Regina slid out of bed and padded over to her. Emma paused with her jeans on but her top in her hand. Regina kissed her soundly, her hands snaking round to squeeze Emma's ass.

"Of course. But as soon as we're done we're coming back here to continue this. You owe me an orgasm, after all."

With that she wandered off to the bathroom, presumably to get dressed, although Emma wouldn't put anything past her at the moment.

What the hell was going on? Were she and Regina dating now? Or was this just a one off thing? How was she supposed to go about asking that? Of course she wanted it to be more than a one time thing, but what if Regina rejected her? She wasn't sure she could handle that. They should probably have talked about that before the whole sex thing…

Emma pulled her top on over her head just as Regina emerged from the bathroom wearing her trademark power suit and with her hair and make up back to normal.

Emma narrowed her eyes.

"Okay you have _got_ to teach me how to do the magic clothes on thing..."

Regina smirked.

"I much prefer to magic clothes off, but suit yourself."

Emma tripped over her feet at Regina's words as she headed to the door. She and Regina had always kind of sort of flirted, but it had always been much more subtle than this. She wasn't sure she'd ever get used to Regina saying outright sexual things, even despite the fact that they had just had sex.

The way Regina was looking at her now Emma had no doubts that she was thinking about magicking her clothes off again, and she felt heat pooling between her legs at the thought.

"Don't even think about it," Emma warned, but the hitch in her breathing somewhat ruined the effect.

Regina smirked again and walked out of the door. Emma followed behind.

She could do this, she told herself. She could concentrate on work and magic and crime solving and not think about having sex with Regina. She would definitely not think about how her hair smelled like apples, and her skin felt like velvet, and her breasts looked like a work of art.

Crap.

It was going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used google translate for the Latin, so apologies if it's awful! It's supposed to say:  
>  _My sins are great in number_  
>  I wish to be pure  
> Remove from me my sins  
> Increase my virtues  
> So that I may defeat my enemies  
> I offer my blood  
> May the sand complete the exchange
> 
> I do not usually write multi-chapter, or plotty-adventurey-mystery type stuff so I am SUPER NERVOUS about this one!


	2. Gluttony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone goes nuts for pancakes, Emma meets Aladdin and Jasmine and manages not to fangirl *too* much.

After Ruby's vague description, Emma wasn't entirely sure what to expect when they arrived at Granny's. But something bad had definitely happened there, that much was evident.

Half the tables had been knocked over, their chairs strewn around the floor, and there was even a bar stool sticking out of the jukebox. Granny was stood in front of it with a broom sweeping up the broken glass.

Emma called out to her as she picked her way through the debris, trying not to disturb anything in case it was needed for evidence.

Granny waved and set her broom down, then made her way towards Emma and Regina with her hands on her hips.

"What the hell happened here?" Emma asked.

"Pancakes! Some guy lost it over pancakes!" Granny waved her arms around as she spoke.

Emma rubbed her forehead. She was not in the mood for this.

"Start from the beginning. What guy? What happened?"

"I don't know him that well, he didn't come here often. I think his name was Ravi, or something like that. Anyway, he came in and ordered pancakes and when he finished them he said they were the best pancakes he'd ever eaten, which is true, by the way."

Emma nodded emphatically in agreement. Granny's pancakes really were the best she'd ever had, and she'd had a lot in her time.

"So then he ordered some more and ate those, then more, and more, and he just kept on eating pancakes! I mean, I've never seen someone eat so much before, and this guy was pretty skinny. So by the time he asked for a sixth plate of pancakes I asked him if maybe he thought he might have had enough pancakes... Well, then he just lost it! He started screaming about how he wanted pancakes and then started smashing up the place!"

Yikes. That was a pretty extreme reaction to have over pancakes, no matter how good they were.

"Okay, so how did he end up in the hospital? And why did Ruby say that magic might be involved?"

"Well that's the thing, while he was throwing chairs around I could've sworn I saw his eyes glow purple for a minute. And then when he finished he just collapsed and no one could wake him up."

Well that did sound kind of magical Emma supposed. She turned to Regina.

"Any ideas on what kind of magic that could be?"

Regina shook her head.

"Not with so little to go on. I might know more when we get to the hospital and can examine him."

Emma nodded. That made sense.

"Okay. Let's have a quick look around here in case there's anything that can tell us more, and then we'll go to the hospital. Where was the guy sitting?"

Granny pointed to the middle booth then went back to retrieve her broom and continue sweeping.

Emma wandered over to the booth in question. She didn't really know what she was looking for, but it was her job to at least try. She examined the tabletop. It was clean apart from a blob of syrup on one side. There was nothing on the seats either. Emma bent over and peered under the table. Yeah, nothing there either. This was a waste of time. Emma glanced behind her at Regina, who was staring unashamedly at her ass and biting her lip. _Jeez_. Emma straightened up and tried to control her blush.

"Okay let's go to the hospital. I'll send Ruby round to examine everything properly. Regina could you poof us there?"

"Of course dear."

Regina stepped up close into Emma's personal space and grabbed her hips, pulling them flush together. Emma was pretty sure that was unnecessary for poofing. They'd done it just holding hands before now. But before she could say anything though her vision was filled with purple smoke and her stomach flipped as they were transported to the hospital.

As soon as the smoke cleared Emma doubled over and wrapped her arms round her stomach, waiting for the world to stop spinning.

"Not sure I'll ever get used to that," she muttered.

Regina rubbed soothing circles on her back.

"Perhaps I should teach you transportation, after the clothes thing, of course. It certainly affects you less when you're the one in control of it."

Emma nodded and straightened up. It definitely would be useful to be able to poof wherever she wanted. No more walking places like a sucker. It sounded great. She'd still use her trusty yellow bug sometimes though, she couldn't give her baby up.

"That would be good, thanks. Right then, let's go find this pancake fiend then shall we?"

\-------------------------------------------

After wandering around the hospital for ten minutes they finally managed to locate Dr Whale, who then led them to a private room at the back of the hospital.

"Here he is Sherriff. His name's Ravi Singh, no family, but his girlfriend and roommate have been called and are on their way."

Emma nodded absentmindedly as she stared at the man in the bed. He seemed kind of familiar and she couldn't work out why.

"So what's wrong with him then doc?" She asked.

"He's in a coma, as you can see, but the thing is there's no medical reason for it. His body has just shut down and keeps on getting weaker no matter what we do. I'm running out of ideas, and if his condition continues deteriorating at this rate then I'd say he only has a few days left."

Well that was definitely not good. Emma turned to Regina.

"Regina is there anything you can find out? Is it magic? Can you help him?"

Regina walked over to the bed and held her hands out over the patient and began muttering in a strange language.

While she worked Emma spoke to Dr Whale.

"Thanks Whale, if it's okay with you I think we should wait until his friends arrive so that we can speak to them."

"Alright, I need to get back to my rounds though," he said with a nod, then turned and left the room.

Emma watched Regina. There was a faint purple glow around her as she did… whatever it was she was doing.

After a few minutes the glow faded and she opened her eyes.

"It's definitely magic," she said, "although what kind I don't know, I'd need to do some research. All I can tell is that he's connected to something and it's doing this to him, and before you ask, no I can't break the connection."

Emma frowned. Why couldn't they just go one week without some kind of monster or magical threat? She just wanted one week, hell even one day, where she didn't end up running around and almost dying. Was that too much to ask?

Before she could complain out loud about it, the door opened and a young woman rushed in, followed by a slightly older man.

The woman ran straight to the bed and sobbed over Ravi, stroking his hair and face. That must be the girlfriend then. The man followed behind her and when he reached the bed he put his hand on the woman's shoulder and rubbed comfortingly.

Emma coughed, feeling a bit awkward to be standing watching this.

"Hi, I'm Sherriff Swan, I was hoping I could ask you some questions to try to work out what's happened to Ravi and how to help him."

The pair looked over at her, the woman wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded.

"Of course," she said shakily, then looked up at the man who still had his hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, firstly what are your names?

"I'm Naveen, and this is Kala," the man answered.

"How many times do I have to tell you, I don't like my curse name," Kala muttered, and Emma glanced at Regina to see her rolling her eyes. She could just imagine what she was thinking, _everyone's a critic_ , or something like that.

"I'm sorry Jasmine, I just forget because me and Ravi prefer…"

Emma's head snapped back to the bed. Did he say Jasmine?

"Whoa wait a minute," she interrupted, "so if you're Jasmine, does that mean he's…"

Emma pointed at Ravi in the bed. Jasmine nodded.

"Aladdin, yeah. He prefers Ravi though, he says he likes that person better, because Ravi was never a thief. I keep telling him it doesn't matter…"

Emma was suddenly fighting hard to keep a big dumb grin off her face. She was in the same room as Aladdin and Jasmine! THE Aladdin and Jasmine! As a kid that had been her favourite Disney movie. She'd identified with Aladdin so much as a fellow street-rat, and if she was being really honest Jasmine had been her first ever childhood crush. She took a moment to look at her properly, real life Jasmine was even more beautiful than cartoon Jasmine. 

"Wait so if he's Aladdin, who're you?" Emma asked, pointing at Naveen, "The monkey? Abu?"

If looks could kill Emma would have been a smouldering pile of ash on the floor. Oops. So not the monkey then.

"No. If you must know, before the curse my name was Jafar."

"What, the bad guy?" Emma said, then immediately regretted it. She really needed to learn when to stop talking.

"Perhaps in the film, but not in real life. Aladdin, Jasmine, and I are friends. We live together," Naveen said coolly.

Emma looked desperately at Regina to save her from the hole she'd managed to dig herself into.

"It seems like Ravi is under the influence of some kind of magic," Regina said, smirking at Emma, clearly enjoying her discomfort, "has he come into contact with any strange objects or anything particularly old recently?"

Both Naveen and Jasmine shook their heads.

"Does Ravi have any enemies? Anyone who might want to hurt him?" Emma asked, finally remembering how to be a Sherriff.

"No of course not!" Jasmine cried, "He's the gym teacher at the high school, he's the football coach, everyone loves him!"

Emma found that hard to believe. Everyone had enemies, no matter how nice they were. It was just a case of finding them.

"Well if you think of anything at all that might be helpful please call the Sherriff's station."

Emma moved towards Regina so that she could poof them home, but before she reached her Jasmine spoke.

"Everyone says you've changed," she said, looking intently at Regina, "if that's true please, please help him."

Regina swallowed and nodded.

"I will do everything I can, I promise."

Then she stepped up to Emma and put her arm around her waist, enveloping them in purple smoke.

\-------------------------------------------

This transportation was no less rough on Emma's insides, and for a terrifying moment she thought she might throw up in the middle of Regina's hallway. That was something she was pretty sure would never be forgiven.

"Are you alright dear?"

Emma nodded and straightened up. She was recovering faster at least, even if it wasn't getting any easier.

"Good, I need you fit and well so that we can continue where we left off when we were so rudely interrupted earlier…"

Emma swallowed thickly at Regina's intense gaze. Holy crap the woman was insatiable. Where the hell did she get her energy from?

"Regina, it's the middle of the night…"

"The best time for these kind of bedroom activities, surely?"

At some point they really needed to talk about whatever this thing was that was going on between them. But not now. Emma _really_ couldn't be bothered to get into that now.

"Regina I'm so tired, I just really need to go home and sleep…"

Regina's gaze softened.

"You should sleep here. Like you said, it's late and you're tired, you shouldn't drive home now."

That was pretty tempting, Regina's bed was incredibly comfy… And then maybe in the morning when she wasn't quite so dead on her feet they could talk about this whole sleeping together thing…

"Alright, yes, thank you."

"Good," Regina said smiling.

She led Emma upstairs and straight to her bedroom. Emma had kind of assumed she'd stay in a spare room, but she was too tired to argue. She pulled off her boots and climbed into the bed fully clothed. It was just as soft and comfortable and wonderful as she remembered. 

She fell asleep instantly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2: Please note that I have never watched Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, so the Jafar in this story bears absolutely no relation to the Jafar in that show. Other than having the actor's name as his curse name, 'cuz I'm a little shit like that.


	3. Greed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A break in at Gold's shop, footsie at breakfast, and Regina becomes the Queen of Indiscretion.

Emma was in heaven. She had died and gone to heaven. She was floating on a cloud high above the world, where no one could reach her, no one would chase her, and no one wanted her to do anything for them. The cloud was so soft it felt like being kissed all over her body at once. She never, ever, wanted to leave.

_Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman! Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman!_

That was a weird tune to be playing in heaven. She was pretty sure Batman wasn't here.

_Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman! Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman!_

Oh wait, that was her phone wasn't it? Oh no, no not again. This was so unfair. Why couldn't everyone just let her sleep?

Emma burrowed further down into the bed covers.

"You answer it," she mumbled.

But there was no answer from Regina.

_Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman! Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na Batman!_

Emma poked her head up from under the covers and looked around. There was no sign of Regina in the bed or in the room.

With a sigh she climbed out of bed and fished her phone out of her jacket pocket.

"What?" She grumbled into it.

"Good morning to you too sunshine," her father chuckled down the line.

"I repeat, what?"

"There's been a break-in at Gold's shop, he's requested that you and Regina be the ones to investigate."

Emma groaned loudly.

"Why me?"

"Who knows. I'll never understand Gold, or trust him. Do you want me to call Regina and let her know?"

"No that's okay I'll… call her." Emma caught herself just in time. She wasn't sure she was ready for anyone to know about her and Regina, especially since she didn't even know herself what was going on between them.

"Alright. Well, have a good day. Catch you later Emma."

"Later Dad."

Emma hung up and then immediately flopped back down onto the bed.

One day she would get a lie in. One day. Hopefully before she was 55.

She heard movement behind her and Emma looked up to see Regina emerge from the bathroom. Completely naked.

Emma watched for a moment as Regina moved around the room. She was so unbelievably beautiful.

"What was that about?" Regina asked as she selected underwear and clothes from her closet.

Emma had to close her eyes. Naked Regina was just too distracting otherwise.

"Duty calls. Again. Someone broke into Gold's shop and apparently he wants _us_ to investigate."

"Well you should probably get out of bed then…"

"But I don't wannaaaaa…" Emma moaned.

"Well tough. We need to go and collect Henry from your parents' anyway. We can do that on the way."

Emma rolled off the bed. At least she was already dressed. Perhaps she should start sleeping in clothes permanently. She sniffed her armpits. Not too bad, she decided, she could get away with that.

"Alright fine. But you're driving."

Regina shrugged.

"Fine by me."

\-------------------------------------------

The entire journey to Gold's Henry didn't stop talking about his day with his Grandparents.

"…and then Grams said that she could do it way better, so she took my controller and she totally kicked his ass!"

"Henry! Language!"

"Sorry Mom. But you should have seen her! I had no idea Grams was so good at Super Smash Bros!"

"That's nice kid," Emma said, stifling a yawn.

"And then Gramps totally lost it! He threw his controller so hard on the sofa that the battery pack came out and he went to bed and wouldn't play anymore. It was so funny!"

Regina pulled the car to a halt outside Gold's shop and turned to look at Henry in the back seat.

"Henry will you be alright waiting in the car for a minute while we talk to Gold? And then we can go to Granny's for breakfast?"

"Sounds great Mom."

Henry pulled out his phone and started to play a game, and Regina and Emma got out of the car and headed over to Gold's shop.

The bell dinged as they entered. Inside the shop looked remarkably similar to how Granny's diner had looked the other night. The cabinets were smashed, with shards of glass and random items littered all over the floor. Gold was in the middle of the room sweeping the floor with a nervous looking Belle stood to the side chewing on her fingernail.

"Gold. Belle." Regina greeted with a nod of her head.

Gold nodded back. Emma would never quite understand the relationship Gold and Regina had. Sometimes it seemed like they hated each other and other times they almost seemed to care for each other.

"So what happened then?" Emma asked. She wasn't really in the mood to drag this out. Breakfast at Granny's was calling, after all.

"Ask Belle, she was here," Gold said.

All eyes turned to Belle, who fidgeted nervously. 

"He wasn't himself! There was something wrong with him!" She cried.

"Slow down Belle, who are you talking about?" Emma asked gently.

"It was Will. He did this. But it wasn't his fault though, I think he was affected by some kind of magic."

Emma sighed. Of course. This couldn't just be a simple break in. That would explain why Gold had wanted the two of them to be the ones who investigated.

"Alright, start from the beginning, tell us everything that happened."

"I came to the shop to borrow a book for some research I'm working on. Rumple went upstairs to get it and I was waiting down here when Will burst into the shop. He wasn't himself though, when I called his name he just ignored me. He started grabbing things and putting them in a bag. He just kept shouting 'mine!' over and over. I tried to stop him but he pushed me away and I think… I think his eyes glowed purple. Then he ran away and Rumple came back downstairs and called the Sherriff's station."

Emma glanced at Regina.

"Well that sounds familiar," she muttered quietly.

"What was taken?" Regina asked Gold.

"A fair amount," he replied, leaning on his broom, "for the most part nothing of value. Although all the items were either made of gold, or had jewels on them. So I'd guess he thought that what he was taking was worth more than it is."

"Anything magical?" Regina pressed.

Gold paused a moment, as though he was considering his answer.

"Not exactly. He took an oil lamp, one which I am very keen to have returned to my possession as soon as possible."

Regina nodded.

"All right. I'm not sure there's much else we can do for you here. We'll look into this," Regina said.

"Please find Will, I'm so worried about him," Belle begged.

Emma wondered whether she should tell Belle about what had happened to Ravi. There was no proof that it was the same thing though, despite the similarities, so it probably wasn't fair to worry her unnecessarily.

"We'll do everything we can," Emma assured her.

As they made their way back to the car Emma had to ask Regina about her theory.

"So do you think it's the same thing affecting Will and Ravi?"

"I think that's highly likely."

"Then that means we need to find Will as soon as possible…"

\------------------------------------------  
All through breakfast Emma couldn't stop thinking about Will. She was really worried that he was laying in a coma somewhere, and it would be her fault for not finding him.

"Are you listening Emma?"

Emma shook her head and focussed on Henry who was sitting opposite her in the booth, next to Regina.

"Sorry what was that kid?"

"I was asking if I could stay at Gram and Gramps' again tonight? I really want to play more Super Smash Bros with Grandma!"

"Uh, sure why not, as long as they're okay with it, and your Mom of course."

"Great, thanks! Mom already said yes."

Emma jumped suddenly, her knee banging on the table above, as she felt a foot sliding up her calf. A foot that definitely did not belong to her son.

"You okay Ma?"

"Yes!" Emma said quickly, her voice squeaking slightly.

Henry gave her a funny look and Emma tried to think of something to say to change the subject.

"We should do a locator spell to find Will, right Regina?"

They'd already filled Henry in on the details of Storybrooke's latest magical catastrophe, figuring he would probably find out anyway so it would be better coming from them rather than random gossip and hearsay.

"That's an excellent idea Emma, but we'll need something of Will's to use as a focus for the spell."

Regina's foot drifted up the inside of her thigh and Emma coughed nervously.

"We could go to the library and see if Belle has something we could use?"

"Let me guess, I'm not allowed to come?" Henry said glumly.

"You're a smart kid," Emma said, reaching over to ruffle his hair. Which was definitely a mistake because as she shifted forward in her seat Regina's foot landed squarely between her legs. She flexed her toes and Emma spluttered.

"You guys are weird. I'm going to Nick and Ava's," Henry said, shaking his head and sliding out of the booth.

As soon as he was out of earshot Emma turned her attention back to Regina.

"Do you mind?"

"Not at all dear," Regina said, raising one eyebrow.

Emma rolled her eyes and began shifting out of the booth, pushing Regina's foot away from her.

"Come on, let's go to the library."

\-------------------------------------------

They didn't find Belle at the library. They did, however, find someone else.

Walking towards the building it was Regina who spotted him.

"Is that… Will Scarlet?"

He was kneeling in front of the door, a sack at his feet, attempting to pick the lock. Again.

They hurried their step, hoping to catch him off guard, but as they neared him he looked up and saw them.

"You can't take my stuff!" He yelled, his eyes briefly flashing purple.

And then he ran.

Emma sighed. Why did they always have to run? Just once she'd like someone to simply surrender straight away.

Reluctantly she started running after him. Thankfully he was weighed down by the sack of stuff he'd presumably stolen and it didn't take her long to catch up to him and tackle him to the ground.

"No! You can't take my stuff! It's mine!"

Emma pulled her handcuffs from her belt and struggled to get them on Will's wrists.

"I hate to break it to you buddy, but stealing stuff doesn't make it yours."

"MINE! IT'S ALL MINE!" He yelled.

Emma pulled him to his feet by the cuffs just as Regina caught up to them with her purposeful high-heeled stride.

"Did you see his eyes?" Emma asked. Regina nodded.

"What should we do with him? Hospital or cell?"

Will tried to run again and Emma yanked the cuffs higher up his back, twisting his arms behind him.

"I think a cell would be most appropriate for now," Regina said, and Emma was inclined to agree.

"Alright buddy, you're coming with us."

\-------------------------------------------

After an hour in the cell Emma hadn't managed to get anything at all out of Will. He hadn't answered any questions, hadn't been able to give them any information about the magic that was affecting him, hadn't even really been able to say why he had stolen things, other than to yell that he wanted his things and that they were his.

Ruby and David had arrived at the station not long ago, Ruby bringing the news that she had found nothing of note at Granny's, and David bringing the news that there was no change in Ravi's condition, and he hadn't found anything at his house either.

So basically they had two seemingly unconnected people, both affected by the same magic, but with no idea how or why.

Emma was starting to get really frustrated.

"Regina isn't there something you can do?"

"I've told you there isn't. I can't break whatever spell this is, it's too powerful. If we could find out something more about it I could try to do some research, but we just don't know enough for me to know where to start."

Emma flopped down into her seat with a sigh. She was officially out of ideas.

David appeared in front of her with a cup of coffee and Emma took it gratefully.

"Since there's nothing more we can do here I suggest we all just go home," Regina said loudly, "after all, I am long overdue that orgasm from you Em-ma."

Emma sprayed her mouthful of coffee out in front of her as she spluttered at Regina's words.

David and Ruby were staring at her, open mouthed. Emma's cheeks burned in embarrassment. 

"Regina! What the hell!"

Regina shrugged.

"Well, are you coming or not?"

There was no way in hell she could say yes to that in front of her _dad_ , even if part of her did really want to. Another part of her though was kind of glad of an excuse to say no, because that would be a lot of effort and she was kind of tired after chasing Will.

"No! I'm not… no!"

"Fine, suit yourself," Regina huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, "but you will deliver at some point. You owe me."

With that she raised her arms and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. Emma really, _really_ , wished she could do the same thing.

"Uh, Emma?" David said hesitantly.

Yeah, there was no way in hell she was ready for _that_ conversation.

"I… I'm going home. To my house! Not hers!" Emma said hurriedly, grabbing her things and rushing from the room, desperately trying to avoid eye-contact with anyone.

Oh god that was awful.

She needed a nap. A long one. One she preferably didn't wake up from. Ever.

But knowing her luck the universe would not be so kind to her.

She was, of course, right about that.


	4. Sloth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a giant snake. Emma can't really be bothered.

Emma had just made it home and thrown herself down onto the couch when she heard her most hated sound in the universe.

_'Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na-na Batman!'_

"Aaaarrrggghh no not again! Leave me alone!" She yelled at the phone, which continued to ring.

Maybe she could ignore it? Pretend that she was asleep, or in the bathroom, or dead, or something.

She picked up a cushion and slammed it down over her head.

_'Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na-na Batman!'_

Eventually the phone stopped ringing and Emma sighed in relief.

She lifted the cushion up off of her head and put it underneath it instead. Maybe now she could finally have that nap.

 _'Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na-na Batman!'_ The phone began to ring again.

Eurgh. _Fine._ If they weren't going to leave her alone she might as well answer it.

"Emma! Thank goodness!" David's voice sounded loud and out of breath in her ear.

"This had better be important…"

"Get down to town hall now, there's an emergency, Snow's in danger."

"But I literally just sat down…" Emma moaned.

"Didn't you hear me? Snow's in danger! I'm on my way but I could use your help too, together we'll make whoever's responsible for this pay!"

David ended the call before Emma could think of an excuse not to go.

For the hundredth time that week Emma wished she knew how to poof. She'd definitely have to learn that one before the clothes thing. But thinking about poofing clothes on inevitably led back to thinking about Regina poofing her clothes _off_ , so Emma pulled her boots on and hurried out of the apartment before she could get too distracted by that particular memory.

\-------------------------------------------

Nothing could have prepared her for the scene that was waiting for her when she made it to the town hall.

There was Charming, sword in hand, facing off against an enormous red snake.

It was the size of at least three cars and its eyes were glowing crimson. Emma had faced trolls and giants and dragons, but nothing as terrifying as this before.

The snake lunged forward and David rolled away just in the nick of time. As it reared back up Emma was horrified to see that it had Snow wrapped up tight in a coil of its body. She was wriggling and struggling but couldn't free her arms. She was utterly helpless.

Emma ducked down behind an overturned car in the road. Holy crap how powerful was this thing?

She heard an angry yell and poked her head up over the car just in time to see David charging towards the snake's middle with his sword raised. He was so focussed on Snow though that he didn't see the snake's tail whip round behind him. It hit him squarely on the shoulders, sending him flying and his sword clattering to the ground.

Emma craned her neck trying to see where he had landed, if he was okay. Eventually she spotted him laying on top of a car roof, not moving. Shit, shit, shit, shit!

She pulled her gun out of its holster and took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. Her heart was already pounding and she hadn't even done anything yet.

Creeping out from behind the car Emma took aim at the snake's head as it loomed over David's motionless body. She fired six rounds into it in quick succession.

The snake reared back from David with a loud hiss and turned to face Emma. It hissed again and spread its hood, making it look even larger and more menacing than before.

It suddenly began slithering towards her, and fucking hell was that thing fast!

Emma dove to the side as the snake snapped its jaws at her. She looked desperately around her for some kind of cover.

There! There was a small gap between two buildings which she would just about be able to squeeze into, but there was no way the snake would.

Scrabbling to her feet Emma dashed towards the buildings, she could hear the snake behind her but didn't dare look back. When she reached the gap Emma turned sideways and squeezed herself in as far as she could manage. The snake snapped its jaws over and over, twisting its head this way and that, trying to reach her. But thankfully it couldn't.

Emma managed to fire a few more shots at the thing, but it didn't seem to do any good. Every time a bullet hit it the snake just shook its head and continued to snap at her.

She started to panic then. She was trapped between two buildings with no way out and no way to kill the monstrous creature keeping her there. This might be it. This might be how she died.

Suddenly the snake screeched and then its head dropped limply to the floor.

Emma held her breath. What had happened? Was it dead? Was it just playing dead?

Then a vaguely familiar face popped into view in the gap between the buildings.

"Emma! Are you alright?"

She thought she was. She wasn't entirely sure though.

But what was that guy's name?

"Naveen?" She said slowly as she remembered.

"Yeah. Are you okay? You can come out. It's dead."

Emma slowly began to inch her way out of the cramped space. Her heart pounded as she stepped over the snake's motionless head, half expecting it to come back to life and jump up at her.

It was only when she made it back out into the open that she could see that the snake's head had been cut clean off.

She turned to Naveen in amazement, he was holding David's sword and was covered in inky black goo, which Emma assumed was the snake's blood.

"What… what happened? Did you kill it?"

Naveen shrugged.

"Yeah, I heard the commotion so I came to see what was going on. When I got here I saw the sword on the ground and that thing snapping away at the building and well, I guess I just acted on instinct?"

Emma stared at him incredulously. She wasn't sure what kind of crazy instinct would lead anyone to go running into danger and chop off the head of a giant snake, but then she was glad his did because she didn't even want to think about what would have happened if he hadn't.

She was just about to thank him when out of the corner of her eye she saw Snow walking slowly towards them, supporting David who was thankfully alive and awake, but hobbling painfully.

"Mom! Dad! You're okay!" Emma cried in relief.

"Yes, of course I am, I can take care of myself" Snow huffed, "but I think I should take this idiot to the hospital just in case."

David grimaced but didn't say anything.

"If they don't need to keep him in overnight we should have a celebratory dinner at Granny's later. I'll let you know," Snow said, and without waiting for an answer began to drag David off in the direction of the hospital.

Emma turned back to Naveen, who was stood awkwardly staring at the sword in still in his hand.

"Uh, that's my Dad's. I should probably take that," Emma said, holding her hand out.

"Oh right, of course."

Naveen handed it over and there was an awkward pause.

"You should come tonight, to Granny's," Emma offered. The guy had saved her life, after all.

"Oh, yeah, that would be nice. Can I bring Jasmine?"

Emma shrugged.

"Sure, why not. How's Ravi doing by the way?"

Naveen's features darkened briefly at the question.

"Doctors say he's still getting worse."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Naveen smiled tightly.

"Thanks. I'll see you tonight then."

With that he too turned and walked away.

Emma glanced back at the body of the snake. She had no idea what to do about that. That could be someone else's problem. Maybe Regina could poof its body away or magically cremate it or something. She'd worry about that later though. Right now she needed a shower and a sleep.

With a long suffering sigh Emma began trudging back to her apartment.

\-------------------------------------------

Dinner at Granny's felt almost as exhausting to Emma as fighting the damn snake had.

It was one of those occasions where everyone was all talking at the same time, and no one was listening to anyone.

"I would have been fine you know," Snow was muttering, "I was close to getting free and then I would have killed it. I didn't need you all to come and rescue me."

"I just want to know how it got here. If someone was responsible for bringing it then I swear they won't know what hit them when I get a hold of them. They'll pay for what they did," David was ranting, his leg propped up on a chair beside him.

"I'm just glad Emma didn't get hurt," Regina purred softly, "it would be such a shame if anything were to happen to that incredibly body."

Regina was playing footsie with her under the table. Again. But this time Emma was able to control herself a little better and hadn't made any ridiculous noises. She was actually doing a fairly good job of ignoring it completely.

The only person who wasn't talking, other than herself, was Henry. He was staring intently at one person after another, frowning deeply.

Emma crossed her arms on the table and rested her head on them. She closed her eyes and tried to block out all the noise around her. After getting home and showering she'd slept for a few hours but she still felt completely dead on her feet.

"You guys I think there's something wrong with you," Henry said suddenly.

Emma raised her head to smile at him reassuringly.

"You mean aside from David's sprained ankle and general exhaustion after fighting a monster?"

"Yes! You're all behaving really weirdly!"

Regina reached over and stroked the side of his cheek with the back of her fingers.

"What do you mean sweetheart?"

"I don't know, you're just… you're not acting quite like yourselves."

"Well," David said slowly, his brow creasing in thought, "Regina did say something really…"

"Dad!" Emma interrupted forcefully. She couldn't decide what would be more embarrassing, for Henry to hear about her night with Regina, or for _Snow_ to hear about it.

Thankfully she was saved from any further conversation on the subject by the arrival of Naveen and Jasmine.

"Hey everyone!" Naveen greeted warmly, and Jasmine waved by his side. Emma was surprised to notice that she had her arm around his waist.

"Here's our hero!" David exclaimed loudly, causing Snow to huff. Emma didn't know what her problem was.

They pulled up chairs and joined the group round the table.

Out of the corner of her eye Emma noticed Belle sitting at the bar staring over at them. If she weren't sandwiched in between Snow and Regina she would go and invite her to join them. Probably. Maybe. That would involve movement though…

Jasmine's melodious laugh brought Emma's attention back to her own table.

"He's just so brave like that. And so kind. The other day we had to go and buy groceries twice because he gave the first lot to our elderly neighbour."

Naveen smiled and Jasmine gazed up at him for a moment before leaning in and kissing him on the cheek.

Emma frowned. That was kind of overly familiar behaviour to have with your boyfriend's best friend, surely? Especially when your boyfriend was currently in a magical coma.

"Oh Jasmine, it was nothing, anyone would have done it."

David clapped him on the back.

"You're a good man Naveen, and handy with a sword. How about you and I team up together to take down whoever was responsible for that beast of a snake? We could really give them hell, the two of us! What do you say?"

Emma tuned out of the conversation for a moment as she felt Regina's hand sliding up her thigh. They still hadn't managed to have a conversation about whatever the hell was going on between them, what with all the crazyness of the past few days. Emma knew it needed to happen, but she was kind of scared that Regina would say it was just sex, given how she'd been behaving, and she was pretty sure that would break her heart. So she was doing what any sensible person would, and putting it off for as long as humanly possible.

Emma jumped slightly as her phone began to vibrate in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw the Station's number flashing on the screen.

Shit, what _now_?

"What's up Ruby?" Emma said when she answered the call.

"Emma I've got some bad news, Will Scarlett has escaped from his cell. It looks like someone might have helped him. I'm dusting for prints now, I'll let you know if I find anything."

"Thanks Ruby."

Emma sighed and ended the call. Typical. This week just kept on getting worse, didn't it.

When she looked up Emma realised that everyone at the table was looking at her.

"That was Ruby," Emma explained, "Will Scarlett has escaped."

Well, so much for a nice relaxing evening.


	5. Wrath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David has no chill. Emma has an epiphany and then a sad.

“Alright, well, I suppose we should split up and look for Will then I guess,” Emma said, although that was the last thing she wanted to do. “I’ll head to the library, Snow you check the camp in the forest, David you go back to Gold’s shop in case he returns there.”

“I’ll _come_ with you Em-ma,” Regina purred, incredibly close to her ear, and was it just her imagination or had she emphasised the word come?

“Uh, sure...” 

That was probably a bad idea.

“And I’ll stay here with Granny,” Henry sulked, sinking down into his chair.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Naveen asked, his face earnest.

Tempting. Especially if she could send him to check out the library in her place... But no, probably not a good idea to involve civilians in police work.

“No, thank you Naveen. This is official police business. Although maybe you could stay here and keep Henry company if you wanted?”

“Of course, we’d love to, right Jasmine?”

Jasmine smiled and nodded, and Emma felt that same slight sense of unease as she had when they’d first arrived at the diner. But she didn’t have time to analyse it.

“Alright let’s do this. I don’t think he’s dangerous, in fact I’m more worried about him potentially needing medical attention than repeat offending, so let’s find him as soon as possible.”

As they all stood up and began making their way out of the diner Emma’s attention was once again drawn to Belle sitting at the bar, still staring over at them. Shit. She should probably tell Belle about Will’s escape since they were maybe sort of dating, Emma wasn’t really sure, she couldn’t keep up with Belle and Gold’s on-again-off-again thing. She made her way over to the bar.

“Hey Belle, so um, Will’s escaped from the station so we’re just heading out to look for him. We’re going to try the library, the forest camp and Gold’s shop first. If you see him, or think of anywhere else he might go, would you give me a call?”

Belle’s eyes finally focussed on Emma from where she’d been staring over at their table, as if she’d only just realised that she was stood in front of her. Emma suddenly felt really guilty about not telling her what they knew so far about the magic affecting Will.

“It’s really important that we find him quickly, I think you were right about him being affected by magic and I'm worried for his safety."

“Oh, of course Emma, yes. In fact I think… I'll go look for him now."

She glanced over again at the table Emma had just vacated, where Henry, Jasmine and Naveen were all laughing together, and then hurried out of the diner.

That was kind of weird. But Emma didn't really have time to analyse it. She had a manhunt to get started. Great.

\----------------------------------------

When they arrived at the library Emma was not even remotely surprised to find it locked up tight, and with no sign of Will anywhere.

"Do you think we should check in the caves under… oh!"

She didn't quite manage to finish her sentence as Regina pushed her against the library door and kissed her soundly.

Emma couldn't help but melt into the kiss despite her surprise, and her heart flipped as Regina nibbled at her bottom lip. Fuck. Kissing Regina felt so good. They should probably talk about whatever this was though… But she was just so scared that if they did that then the kissing would stop, or worse, that Regina would say that it was just kissing, no feelings attached. Because Emma had feelings. She had a whole lot of feelings, had done for years now.

"It's been far too long since we last did that," Regina murmured in between kisses. Emma was inclined to agree. Two days was definitely too long to go without kissing Regina.

"Regina, what… I mean… Are we? What is? Shit."

The sound of Emma's phone buzzing in her pocket interrupted her before she could work up the nerve to ask Regina what she really needed to know.

Emma pulled her phone out and answered it.

"Hello? Oh!"

Regina began kissing her neck at the same time as her ears were assaulted by a loud crash on the other end of the line.

"Hello? Who's there?"

"Sherriff!" A man's breathless voice sounded through the phone. She knew that voice. Who was it?

"Help me!" There was another crash. "Your father is… aah!"

"Gold?"

What the hell was going on over there?

"Yes! Get here now! Stop him!"

There was another loud crash and then the line went dead. Shit.

"Regina," Emma said, trying to gently prise her mouth away from her neck and failing miserably, "you need to poof us to Gold's, right now."

Regina hummed and Emma thought for a moment that she was ignoring her, but then she felt the familiar stomach churning feeling of the world shifting beneath her feet and then she was falling into Regina's arms with a lurch. Regina used the opportunity to grab her ass.

Emma shook her head to clear it as she stumbled through the door into Gold's shop, quickly taking in the chaos around her.

The few remaining cabinets that Will hadn't smashed now lay in ruins on the floor. Gold was nowhere to be seen but David was stood in the centre of the room. He was holding Gold's cane in his hand, his shoulders heaving as he panted. 

"WHERE ARE YOU, SNAKE? COME OUT HERE AND FACE ME!" He yelled, his face turning even redder than before. He was doing a pretty good impression of the incredible hulk really, just minus the green skin.

"Dad! What's going on?"

David's head whipped around to face her and his eyes glowed red. 

No. Oh no. Not him too.

"You! You were no help saving your mother, you'll pay for that!"

Emma stood, rooted to the spot, as he barrelled towards her with an outraged cry. He raised the cane and was about to strike when a blast of purple energy surged past her and struck him in the chest. He instantly froze in place, his arm still raised and his face twisted into a furious snarl.

Emma stared in horror. She'd never seen her father look like that at anyone, especially not her.

She jumped as a hand was placed on her arm and turned to stare at Regina wide-eyed in fear.

"Are you alright Emma?" Regina asked softly.

Emma couldn't do much other than nod. Although even that was a lie. A pretty big lie.

Regina pulled Emma into a hug. Emma squeezed a bit harder than was maybe necessary, and was immensely grateful that Regina didn't use the opportunity to grope her this time.

Emma jumped again as Gold's head popped up over the wreckage of a cabinet.

"Ladies. Nice of you show up."

Gold grunted as he slowly levered himself up into a standing position.

Emma stepped away from Regina and pulled awkwardly at her clothes.

"What happened? Why was David destroying your shop?"

Gold shrugged.

"Beats me dearie. I was clearing up when your father burst in and started screaming that he was going to make me pay. He seemed under the impressed that I was responsible for that little snake incident the other day."

"And were you?" Emma asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Of course not. Why would I do that?"

Emma shrugged. She had no idea if he was telling the truth or not. But right now she had more important things to worry about. Namely her father.

"Regina can you poof David to the cell at the station?"

Regina nodded.

"Okay you do that and I'll meet you there. I need some time to think."

"Alright dear."

Regina stepped up to David and put her hand on his shoulder, transporting them away in a puff of purple smoke.

Emma turned back to Gold once more.

"You saw his eyes, that's the third person now. Do you know what this magic is?"

Gold regarded her for a long moment before finally answering.

"I have no idea what you're talking about dearie."

Emma growled in frustration and turned to leave. She heard Gold call after her.

"I'll send the Sherriff's station the bill for this damage then shall I?"

\-------------------------------------------

Emma used the walk to the station to call Snow and tell her what had happened. She did not take it well.

By the time Emma arrived Snow was already there, arguing with David through the bars of the cell. Regina was sitting to the side watching with a small grin on her face. She looked like all she was missing was popcorn.

"How could you be so stupid? I would never do something like that, and I certainly would never let myself get affected by dangerous magic!"

"No, you just get yourself trapped by a GIANT SNAKE!"

"I HAD IT UNDER CONTROL!"

Emma ignored them and sat down at her desk. She had to figure this out. Her father's life was at risk.

Okay what did they know so far?

There was some kind of very strong magical connection which was affecting at least 3 people. It made Ravi eat pancakes until he ended up in a coma, it made Will steal a bunch of shiny things and then act like the seagulls from Finding Nemo, and made David just… really angry.

Wait. There was something familiar here. What was it? They were all different behaviours but why did they feel so familiar? So related?

A snippet of Snow and David's argument caught Emma's attention.

"…and that's why _I'm_ clearly the brains in this relationship. Not to mention the looks. And the muscle."

"If I wasn't behind bars I would make you regret those words!"

Jeez, Snow was being extra-egotistical today…

Wait, that was it! She knew what the link was.

Emma grabbed a piece of paper and began to scribble, memories of a strict Catholic foster home flooding back to her.

Ravi ate so many pancakes he ended up in a coma, that was gluttony.

Will was desperate to own everything shiny, that must be greed.

David was super angry with everyone, that had to be wrath.

So if she was right, and the connection was the seven deadly sins, then that meant that there were four other people affected. She had a sneaking suspicion that Snow might be one of them, she was certainly acting like pride was a bit of an issue at the moment.

So that just left Envy, Sloth and… oh…

Realisation hit Emma almost like a physical blow to the chest.

Lust.

Regina was affected by lust. That explained her recent behaviour. Why she kept playing footsie and touching her inappropriately, and why she had suddenly wanted to sleep with her.

Emma was pretty sure she could feel her heart physically breaking. Of course Regina couldn't possibly have real feelings for her. How could she have been so stupid as to even hope that? And how was she supposed to be around Regina now? Knowing that they had had sex as a result of some magic spell?

"Emma?"

She looked up at her mother, her vision blurring slightly with unshed tears.

"Are you alright?"

Emma wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

More lies.

"I think I figured out something about our magical malady."

Emma held up her bit of paper and Snow and Regina hurried over to her.

"What is it?" Snow asked.

"I think it's the seven deadly sins," Emma said, pointing to where she'd written them all down, with names next to the three she was sure about.

Regina leant over, putting her cleavage directly in Emma's line of vision. Emma swallowed and tried to look anywhere else, reminding herself that it was the magic making her act like this.

"Well, that does seem to make sense," Regina murmured.

"I would have figured that out soon enough," Snow added petulantly.

Oh boy. This was going to be tough, she had no idea how they would take what she had to say next.

"It gets worse, I think you're both affected too…"


	6. Envy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Belle is a little stalker. Emma learns to poof.

"Don't be ridiculous Emma, I think I would know if I was affected by magic," Snow scoffed.

Emma rolled her eyes. That was just further proof that she was right as far as she was concerned.

"Yeah, see that right there makes me think that you got pride in whatever magical lucky dip this is."

Regina straightened up slowly beside her.

"Now that you've pointed it out, I can see that my recent behaviour could very well be due to a magical increase in lust."

Hearing Regina so readily accept it felt like twisting the knife in Emma's gut. Of course her desire for Emma could only have been caused by magic, and of course Regina would know that when she really thought about it.

"Well what about you then Emma? If we're all affected it seems likely that you are too," Snow said, her arms folded across her chest. 

Emma paused. She hadn't considered that. She looked down at the two remaining sins on her list. Envy and sloth.

Well, she hadn't been feeling particularly envious of anyone recently, so it probably wasn't that. She supposed she had been tired lately, but then she was always tired. That's what happened when you were the Sherriff of a crazy magical town, the saviour, and a mother as well.

"I think sloth seems most likely, if anything," Regina said, "after all, you were too tired to have sex with me the other night."

There was an awkward pause in which Emma wished the ground would swallow her whole.

"I'm sorry, I don't seem to be able to stop myself right now," Regina mumbled.

"I KNEW IT!" Snow cried suddenly, making Emma jump in her seat, "I knew you two were in love! _Damn_ I'm good."

Well that was definitely not the reaction she had been expecting from her mother, and it was all the more painful knowing that they weren't in love at all. Well, Emma was, but Regina was just under the influence of whatever spell this was. It made her heart ache thinking about it. She needed to change the subject.

"Okay well, now that we know that it's the seven deadly sins, do you think we might be able to find out what spell it is and break it before anyone else ends up in a coma?" Emma asked Regina.

They glanced over at David in the cell, clearly all thinking the same thing. He had been rattling the bars like a gorilla throughout their conversation but they'd been ignoring him, his face was now the colour of beetroot and he was foaming slightly at the mouth. If anyone was going to put themselves into a magical coma soon, it would be him.

"I think we should go to the library," Regina said, "I know there are a few books there on this type of magic which might be helpful."

Emma nodded, it would be a relief not to be in the same room as him anymore, he was really starting to scare her.

They all made their way out of the station, the sounds of David's furious yelling echoing behind them.

"YOU CAN'T KEEP ME HERE! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

\-------------------------------------------

The drive to the library was the most awkward 15 minutes of Emma's life. Every so often she could feel Regina's eyes on her, but every time she looked over at her Regina just bit her lip and then looked away. When Emma made the mistake of glancing back at Snow she was grinning at them both smugly. It was mortifying.

When they reached their destination they all paused in the doorway of the library. Inside Belle was stood at a table, books and parchments spread out all around her, muttering to herself.

That was probably not a good sign.

"Hey Belle, what's going on?" Emma asked as gently as she could, while walking slowly towards her. The others followed behind.

Belle glanced up briefly but then went straight back to looking at the books in front of her. Her muttering did increase in volume, though Emma wasn't entirely sure if that was because it was now directed at her or not.

"It's magic. Definitely magic. That explains it."

They reached the table and Emma looked down at the papers spread out over it, most of them were in foreign languages that she definitely didn't know. She hoped Regina did though. Emma glanced at her and was relieved to see her studying the pages intently.

"What magic, Belle? The magic affecting Will?"

Belle frowned and tutted but didn't bother looking back up at Emma.

"No, not him. _Her_ magic. It's the only thing that makes sense. She must be doing it by magic."

Her? Her who? Now Emma was completely lost.

"Who, Belle? Doing what by magic?"

"Jasmine, obviously," Belle's face twisted into something resembling a snarl as she said the other woman's name. "I couldn’t work out why he would want her and not me. I mean come on, he defeated that snake, he's a hero! And he's so kind and generous and brave. He should be with someone who deserves him, like me, not _her_. So I knew she must be doing something to him to make him like her, and I was right!"

Belle stabbed her finger down onto the page of a book. Emma looked down to see her pointing at a strange symbol. It looked like a seven point star, with each point connected by an unbroken line, and strange symbols beside each one.

"Belle what is that?" Emma asked. It couldn't possibly be a coincidence that they were dealing with the seven deadly sins, and Belle was looking at a weird magical seven sided star.

"I don't know yet, but it was in her house!"

"Wait you were in Jasmine's house? When?"

Belle rolled her eyes.

"Yes, of course. Keep up. After I saw them together in the diner with you I knew something was wrong so when you all went to look for Will I went to investigate. Good job I did because I found this symbol painted in her basement. This just proves I was right and she's using magic. I just need to work out how to undo the spell and then he'll be all mine!"

Emma thought that was kind of unlikely. In fact what was seeming much more probable was that in actual fact it was the object of Belle's affections who was behind the magic. After all, he had had a connection to Ravi, he was conveniently there for the snake incident, and now Belle was suddenly infatuated with him. Emma was also now pretty sure she knew whose name she should write next to 'envy' on her list.

She looked to Regina.

"You're thinking what I'm thinking, right?" 

Regina stared back, panic rising in her eyes.

"Yes, and we left him with Henry!"

She started to dash towards the door but Emma grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Regina! We can't let him know that we know!"

Regina yanked her arm out of Emma's grasp and growled.

"We can't just leave Henry with him! He might be in danger!"

"I really don't think he's in any danger right now though, I mean Naveen saved my life after all. I don't know what's going on but I think we need to find out, and we definitely need to break this spell."

"Well what do you suggest then Swan?" Regina spat out through gritted teeth.

Emma thought about it for a moment.

"I think we should take advantage of the fact that he's not at home, and that we know where he is, and go to his house and have a look at this symbol."

"But Henry…"

"Snow can go to the diner to look after Henry."

"Excuse me!" Snow interrupted, her face a picture of indignance. "I am not just a babysitter! I am Snow White! I'm a fearsome warrior!"

Emma breathed out through her nose and counted to ten in her head. Then she had a brainwave.

"Mom, I'm asking you to do this because it's the most important job of all! I need a warrior, someone I trust, to take care of Henry. And I need it to be someone smart and cunning as well to make sure that Naveen doesn't suspect anything is wrong."

Snow stood taller and puffed out her chest, Emma tried hard not to smile. It was definitely working.

"I can do all that, I'm definitely the best person for the job!"

"Great! Give me a call if he or Jasmine leaves the diner so that we can get out of there before they get back."

Snow saluted and then jogged out of the library. By some miracle Emma managed to keep a straight face until she was out of sight.

"Nicely done," Regina murmured, and Emma was unsurprised to see a similarly amused grin on her face as well.

Emma shrugged modestly.

"Right then, shall we go check out this symbol?"

Regina had just taken a step towards her, ready to poof them away, when Belle dashed towards them.

"Are you going to Naveen's house? Can I come?"

Emma and Regina shared a look. That was probably a really terrible idea.

"Uh, no I think it's better that you stay here and keep researching the magic," Emma said, hoping that that would work.

"But I want to go Naveen's house! I could find out more about him and…"

A cloud of sparkling blue dust puffed into Belle's face and she crumpled to the floor. Emma looked at Regina, who shrugged.

"It's a sleeping spell. It'll only last an hour or so. I thought that was the safest option."

She was probably right about that actually. Emma nodded.

"Alright then, let's go."

\----------------------------------------------

Emma stared around the living room. It looked like a typical shared house. There were books and clothes strewn around the place, some empty food containers on the coffee table. But nothing out of the ordinary. Well, apart from the fact that they couldn't find any kind of door or entrance to the basement.

"Do you think Belle was lying?" Emma asked in confusion.

Regina shook her head.

"No, there's definitely magic here, I can feel it."

She closed her eyes and began muttering under her breath in a language that Emma didn't recognise. After a moment she opened her eyes and pointed over to the far wall.

"There, it's that way."

"But that's just a wall Regin..oh please tell me it's a secret entrance! That's so cool!"

Emma dashed over to the wall and immediately started feeling around for some kind of switch. After a few moments searching with no success Emma turned to Regina dejectedly. Regina smiled and pulled at the light fitting on the wall. Immediately a section of the wall slid away to reveal a dark staircase.

"Okay, you've got to admit that's cool..."

Regina rolled her eyes but smiled fondly.

"You're a child, Emma."

They made their way down the staircase and Emma felt more uneasy with every step they took. It was really dark, and really, _really_ , creepy.

When they eventually reached the bottom of the staircase the room opened out into a stereotypical horror movie style basement, complete with candles and skulls and weird looking knives. Emma was about two seconds away from turning around and running straight back up the stairs.

"Well this is certainly more themed than my sex dungeon," Regina murmured and Emma tripped over her feet in shock. She didn't… No… That was just the spell talking, right?

"This is it," Regina said, stopping abruptly and causing Emma to walk right into her back.

Regina turned around and Emma had to step away from her quickly. She recognised that look in her eyes, and she really couldn't cope with another make-out session now that she knew it didn't actually mean anything to Regina.

"So can you break the spell?" Emma asked, coughing slightly to cover her embarrassment.

Emma watched as Regina held her hands out over the weird symbol painted on the floor. She opened her mouth but before she could say a word a dome of bright purple light expanded out from the symbol. Both Regina and Emma were flung backwards across the room, hitting the wall and slumping down onto the floor.

They lay there for a moment, gasping hard, every muscle screaming in pain.

"Ouchhhhhhh," Emma eventually managed to groan. Regina grunted, which Emma assumed was in agreement.

Then Emma felt her phone buzzing.

She very slowly managed to pull it out of her pocket, every part of her aching with the effort of it.

It was Snow.

"Mom?"

"They've just left the diner, you need to get out of there now. Henry and I will meet you back at the apartment."

She ended the call before Emma could respond.

"Regina, you have to poof us out of here now," Emma said, reaching out for her and finding her arm.

"I… I don't think I can… My magic…" Regina grunted.

Emma felt panic rise in her chest. She had no idea what would happen if they were caught here. She didn't know if Naveen had magic, or if he was dangerous. She tried to push herself to her feet but collapsed before she could manage it. She looked over at Regina and was horrified to realise that she had passed out.

Emma closed her eyes. She felt tears forming behind them. But she had to at least try.

Searching deep within herself for the magic she knew she possessed, but rarely used, Emma wished with all her might for it to transport them away from there.

But nothing happened.

Emma choked on a sob. This had to work, it had to. Maybe she needed to visualise where she wanted to poof to?

She tried again, this time picturing her bed. She figured a soft landing would probably be a good idea for a first attempt at poofing.

Just when she was about to give up hope she felt the pull of magic in her gut, and she opened her eyes in time to see a swirl of white smoke and the world blurring around her.


	7. Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The spell is broken. Emma and Regina finally have that talk. Sort of.

Emma's landing was soft and actually fairly pleasant. She wasn't able to appreciate it for more than a moment though as Regina then landed on top of her, knocking all the air from her lungs.

Regina's eyes fluttered open and she blinked, focussing on Emma's face.

"Oh Em-ma," Regina breathed, her pupils dilating, and Emma felt it in every inch of her body, desire and heartbreak and longing all mingling together. It was too much.

Emma scrabbled out from underneath Regina, falling off the edge of the bed in her haste to get away. Her poor aching muscles complained loudly at the movement.

She stood up and brushed down her clothes in an attempt to avoid looking at Regina.

"We should go to Snow's apartment, she's expecting us."

"Very well," Regina sighed. She held her hand out to Emma, who took it gingerly, half expecting Regina to pull her down on top of her. Instead Regina levered herself upright, her face twisting into a grimace. She was obviously feeling just as sore as Emma was.

"We'll have to take conventional means of transport, my magic is still depleted so I can't transport us there."

Well Emma sure as shit didn't feel like walking, and clearly neither did Regina, so there was only one option.

"I'll drive us there," she offered. Regina nodded.

They made their way slowly out of the apartment and even more slowly down the stairs to the ground floor. Emma opened the door to the building, stepped out onto the street, and straight into someone.

She tumbled backwards, hitting the sidewalk hard. She heard the sound of crashing metal as the person she'd hit dropped the bag they were holding, coins and plates and tiaras and goblets spilling out around them.

Emma looked up and into the wide startled eyes of Will Scarlet.

There was a moment in which no one moved, and then Will scrambled to his feet, grabbing the objects nearest to him.

"No! You can't take my stuff!"

Emma lunged forward, still on the floor, and grabbed the only thing she could reach, Will's ankle.

He went down hard, the few items he'd managed to pick back up flying out of his hands once more. Emma practically crawled on top of him to stop him getting away. He thrashed about as Emma struggled to get her handcuffs out of her belt without letting go of him.

"Regina! Get my cuffs!"

Emma felt Regina's hand at her waist pulling out the cuffs, and then, surprise surprise, she felt her other hand on her ass. Emma rolled her eyes as she snatched the cuffs from Regina and secured them round Will's wrists, then hauled him to his feet.

Right. Now what?

"I guess we should take him to the station before we go to Snow's?" Emma said, looking to Regina for confirmation.

"But what about Henry…"

"I'm sure he's fine, Snow would have mentioned if anything had happened, right?"

The look on Regina's face suddenly had Emma doubting. After all, admitting that something had happened to Henry would probably be damaging to her pride since she was in charge of keeping him safe.

"Maybe we could check in with them on the way to the station..."

Emma bundled Will into the back of the bug and slammed the door. She turned around and sighed deeply. When they finally managed to sort this mess out she was going to sleep for a week. Maybe even a month. She deserved it.

She stepped away from the car and as she did so an object on the floor caught her eye. It was a small rusted oil lamp. She bent down and picked it up. Why was that familiar? Oh right, Gold had been keen to get this thing back, because it was 'not exactly' magical, whatever that meant.

Emma tucked it into her jacket pocket. She'd give that back to him later. Never let it be said that she couldn't Sherriff, even in the midst of this crazyness.

Feeling pretty proud of herself, Emma got into the bug, joining Regina and Will. They set off for Snow's apartment.

\----------------------------------------------

"So what happened then?" Snow asked.

Emma perched on the edge of the couch, making sure she could see her bug out of the window. Will was still in the back, rocking slightly, he didn't seem to be trying to escape.

"We found the symbol Belle mentioned, and it's definitely what's causing this spell," Regina explained, "but I couldn't undo it, when I tried there was some kind of magical force field."

"Yeah it flung us across the room and knocked Regina out for a while, I had to poof us home. Talk about being thrown in at the magical deep end."

"But you managed it dear, and if you're able to do that then just think how well you'll do at the other spell you wanted to learn. You can practice magicking my clothes off any time you like."

Emma spluttered in embarrassment and looked at the ceiling. They really needed to break this damn spell.

"Sorry," Regina murmured sheepishly, "I really am trying to control myself. If you only knew half the things I was thinking…"

The ache was back in Emma's chest so she did the only thing that seemed to help and ignored it.

"Anyway, then we ran into Will Scarlet again, so he's cuffed in the back of my bug. We need to take him to the station, and we can check on David at the same time, and then I guess go and do some research on how to break this damn spell."

Snow nodded.

"That seems like a sensible plan. I'll stay here to guard Henry again."

Emma hesitated. She hadn't been expecting Snow to agree so readily, let alone suggest it herself. She was fairly sure she could still trust Snow to look after him though, despite being affected by the spell too. After all, she and Regina both seemed to still care about Henry's wellbeing and they were affected just as much as she was. In fact maybe it was a good idea to leave them together so that Henry could keep an eye on her. There was still a chance she could end up in a magical coma at any minute after all.

"Alright, thanks Mom. Henry if anything happens to her call the hospital first then us, okay?"

"Okay Moms, be safe."

He hugged them both and they made their way out of the apartment, and headed to the station.

\-------------------------------------------

Emma had just locked Will in the cell and was clipping her cuffs back onto her belt when her phone rang.

Panic rose in her chest when she saw who was calling. She quickly answered the call.

"Henry? What happened? Are you okay? Is Snow alright?"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Regina's head snap up to look at her.

"She's gone, Mom! She said she was going to go and finish this once and for all because she was the only one capable enough. I tried to stop her but she tied me to a chair and left!"

By this point Regina was pressed up against her side trying to listen to the call as well. Emma switched it to speaker phone.

"Are you alright? Did she hurt you?" Regina asked frantically.

"Wait how are you calling us if you're tied to a chair?" Emma asked, ever the more practical thinker.

"I'm fine moms, she didn't hurt me. I taught myself how to escape from being tied up after we got back from Neverland. You can learn a lot on the internet you know."

Emma felt a rush of pride at his resourcefulness and bravery. But that didn't solve the more immediate problem of what to do about Snow.

"Okay Henry I think you should stay there, lock the doors and don't let anyone in, even if you know them, okay? We'll find Snow."

"Okay Mom, please be careful! I love you both."

"We love you too Henry!" Regina said, and Emma ended the call.

"We need to go after Snow," Emma said, looking at Regina with wide panicking eyes.

"But we don't know how to break the spell…"

"We also don't know what kind of magic Naveen has! What if there's another snake? She's going to get herself killed! We have to stop her!"

"My magic still hasn't completely returned, I can feel I have a bit but not enough for a fight."

Emma pulled at her hair in frustration. There was just no good solution.

"We don't have a choice, we'll think of something."

She put her hand on Regina's arm, closed her eyes, and tried to remember how she had poofed them home earlier.

She felt Regina shift beside her, moving so that she was pressed against Emma's front.

"Not. Helping." Emma hissed through gritted teeth. She didn't dare open her eyes.

"Just think about where you want to go, and think about how good I'm going to fuck you as your reward for managing it," Regina purred, right into her ear.

Emma gasped in shock. She felt heat rush through her body and her stomach flipped.

Her eyes flew open and she blinked. They weren't in the station anymore. They were outside Naveen's house.

"Proper motivation can work wonders," Regina said with a wink then strode towards the front door.

Emma stumbled after her. Her heart was still pounding and her stomach lurching. She couldn't quite work out if it was in arousal, fear, embarrassment, or just a lingering side effect of poofing across town.

\-------------------------------------------

They burst into the living room just in time to see Naveen roll out of the way of the swing of Snow's sword, which instead cleaved his TV in half.

"It's over _Jafar,_ give up!" Snow snarled, swinging at him again.

He jumped back and raised his hands.

"Please! I don't know what you're talking about!"

Emma didn't really know what to do. Snow glanced over at her briefly then returned her attention to Naveen.

"We know what you did, just admit it!" Snow yelled, pointing her sword at him.

"Alright! Alright. I know it was wrong but we just couldn't help it, we're in love!"

Naveen sank to his knees and looked up at Snow pleadingly.

"What are you talking about?" She growled.

"Jasmine and I… We've been seeing each other behind Ravi's back for weeks. I feel so guilty, he's my best friend! But we were together for 28 years under the curse, we couldn't just forget that, or turn those feelings off when it broke. We tried though, we tried for years, but I couldn't help it, I love her!"

"This is ridiculous. He's just stalling. Emma where is the symbol?" Snow demanded, glancing over at her.

Emma moved to the wall and pulled at the light fitting, causing the secret door to open. She watched Naveen's face carefully. He actually looked kind of surprised. What the hell was going on?

Snow hauled him to his feet, pressing the sword to his throat.

"Come on, you're going to undo your spell."

Snow marched him down the stairs to the basement and Emma and Regina followed closely behind.

"Spell? What spell?"

They emerged out into the candlelit room to find a hooded figure stood on the symbol in the middle of the floor, holding a crooked knife.

The pieces of the puzzle all clicked into place in Emma's head at the exact same time as Jasmine turned and hurled a fireball at them.

They all dived out of the way, crashing to the floor in a heap. Emma groaned in pain as she looked around to check that everyone was okay.

"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this," Jasmine said, taking off her cloak and letting it fall to the floor, "the spell should have finished you off before you were able to figure it all out, but I've come too far to go back now, so I guess I'll have to kill you. I'm sorry."

She raised her hand and summoned another fireball, throwing it towards them. Regina pushed herself to her knees and raised her hands, a flash of purple light extending from them like a shield. The fireball hit the light and dissolved. But so did the shield. Regina fell back to the floor.

Jasmine scowled and raised her hand again.

With a grunt Emma pushed herself to her feet and charged at her.

Before she could reach her Jasmine waved her arm, magically sending Emma flying across the room.

She hit the far wall and fell to the ground with a painful thud.

Blinking back tears and unable to move, Emma watched in horror as Snow charged towards Jasmine but was stopped in her tracks by magic. Jasmine squeezed her hand and Snow began choking.

Emma tried to force herself to crawl towards them. She was so tired, and everything hurt, especially her side where something was digging painfully into her ribs.

She pressed her hand to where it hurt most and realised that it was something in her pocket digging into her.

She pulled out an oil lamp. Gold's rusty, 'not exactly magical' lamp.

Emma stared at it for a moment.

Aladdin. Jasmine. Jafar. An oil lamp.

It couldn't be, could it?

Holding her breath and praying to every deity she could think of, Emma rubbed the side of the lamp.

Immediately a plume of light blue smoke poured out from the spout of the lamp. It swirled around until it vaguely took the shape of a human, but continued to shift and coalesce. 

"I wish for the seven deadly sins spell to be broken!" Emma cried before the genie could even utter a word.

The creature giggled. It sounded eerie and echoing, and it sent shivers down Emma's spine.

"I don't grant wishes," it said.

Emma suddenly wondered if she was going to regret having released this thing from its lamp.

The genie snapped its fingers with an audible crack, despite the fact that it was made entirely of incorporeal smoke. Immediately everyone in the room except Emma froze in place.

"What's happening here then?" The genie asked. It flew up into the air, then flittered around the room, brushing over everything and everyone in it, before forming into shape once more in front of Emma.

"I see. Well this is an interesting situation, isn't it?"

"So will you help me?" Emma begged.

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet."

"What are you like an evil genie?" Emma blurted before she could stop herself.

"I'm not evil. I'm not good. I just am. So what is it you want me to do?"

"Break the spell!" Emma cried.

The genie laughed again and surged forward, passing through Emma's body and forming once more behind her.

"Oh you poor ignorant creature, not even self-aware enough to know what it is you've lost. Trust me, you don't want me to do that. Not yet, anyway."

Emma wanted to cry. She had no idea how to break the spell, how to defeat Jamine, how to save the others, and now the genie wouldn't help her. She was terrified, and just so tired, all she wanted to do was sleep.

"What are you talking about?"

"For every sin there is a virtue, and something taken must be replaced by something given. Heroes must be virtuous, after all."

Emma tried not to scream in frustration. Why did all these fairytale creatures and people always have to talk in riddles all the damn time?

"I don't understand!"

"Simpleton," the genie spat, "I'll make it clearer for you. Reverse the exchange before you break the spell. Time is your enemy."

The genie snapped its fingers again and the smoke poured back into the lamp. The sound of Snow's choking gasps for breath once again filled the room.

Emma looked around desperately for a weapon. Just something, anything, to help.

Her eyes landed on an hour glass filled with blood red sand slowly trickling through it. The top half was almost empty.

_Time is your enemy._

Perhaps the genie wasn't being so cryptic after all?

She didn't have any better ideas, so Emma dragged herself to her feet and stumbled over to the table. She lifted the hour glass and flipped it over.

The moment the sand began to trickle back in the other direction Emma gasped.

She could feel her muscles filling with energy, the fog of tiredness and fear lifted from her brain. She felt like herself again. How had she not noticed that this had been happening to her?

"No!" Jasmine screamed, and Emma looked over to see her throw another fireball her way. She ducked just in time.

"It's over Jasmine, the spell is reversed, stop this!" Emma cried. She still had the hour glass clutched to her chest.

"No.. No I can't…" Jasmine stammered, her voice wavering.

"Jasmine!" 

Both Emma and Jasmine looked over in surprise at Naveen, who was walking slowly towards Jasmine with his palms out, as if approaching a wild animal.

"Talk to me Jasmine, what did you do?"

"I did it for you! For us!" She cried, "I just wanted us to be together again, properly. I wanted other people to want us to be together. But we couldn't. How was I supposed to leave Aladdin? So I thought if I made you a hero then I could leave him and people would be okay with it. I… I wasn't expecting him to get hurt… I didn't know who the spell would choose."

She raised her hand again and summoned another fireball.

"Jasmine please!" Naveen begged, "please stop! The spell is broken, it's over, you don't have to hurt anyone else."

She looked around, eyes wild. By this point Snow and Regina had both made it to their feet, and Snow once again had her sword in her hand.

Jasmine crumpled to the floor, dropping the knife she'd been holding.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry Naveen, I'm sorry."

He rushed forward and fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around her.

"It's okay, it's over. We'll fix this together."

Emma breathed a sigh of relief.

She hoped it really was over.

\-------------------------------------------

A few phone calls later and Emma was beyond relieved to hear that Ravi had woken up from his coma and was apparently making a full recovery. David was back to his usual friendly self and Ruby had gone and let him out of the cell. After a somewhat heated argument with Belle they'd also let Will out of the cell as well, on Belle's guarantee that she's make sure he didn't steal anything else.

Emma had returned the lamp to Gold, figuring he wouldn't be able to control the genie any better than she had so it wasn't likely to be too dangerous.

They'd locked Jasmine in the cell until they could work out what to do with her. There wasn't exactly a law they could charge her with, but they didn't feel they could just let her go either.

Naveen had gone to the hospital to see Ravi.

Emma did not envy any of them. That was one seriously messed up love triangle. She felt kind of sorry for all three of them really. It was really hard to reconcile one life with another when you've lived both, she struggled enough working out what was real and what were the fake memories given to her by Regina when she and Henry had left town with Pan's curse.

But she really didn't want to think about Regina right now. It was too painful to contemplate that whole mess. After they had left that basement Regina had hardly been able to look at her, so Emma was desperately mourning not only any possibility of a physical relationship with her, but potentially also the loss of their friendship too.

Now they were all sitting in Granny's, supposedly celebrating, even though Emma really didn't feel much like it.

"I still don't understand exactly what happened to me," David said, for what Emma was pretty sure was the millionth time that evening, "why did I go crazy? I was just so angry!"

"The spell makes someone a hero, in this case Naveen, by purging them of their sins and giving them to seven other people in exchange for their virtues," Belle explained again with a sigh, "Emma reversed the spell with the hour glass, and then when the sand finished falling we were able to break the spell completely by destroying the symbol on the ground, which is called a heptagram, by the way."

"Can we please stop talking about this?" Regina growled, "We all did things that we would not normally do, so can we just move on and stop talking about it?"

Emma felt her heart sink. Regina was clearly not happy about what happened between them as a result of her magically induced lust.

"I'm going for a walk, or a run, or something. I just…need to be active for a bit," Emma said, standing abruptly. She hurried out of the diner without waiting for a reply from anyone.

She'd just made it out to the courtyard when Regina's voice called out behind her.

"Emma, wait!"

She considered just running, but that wouldn't really be fair to Regina, so she stopped and turned to face her.

"Emma please, let me…"

"No! Regina, please don't," Emma interrupted, "I can't… My heart is breaking enough as it is, please don't make me hear you say it."

Regina stared at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

"What do you mean?"

"I know! Okay? I know that what happened between us was just because of the magic lust, I know. So please, don't say it, okay? I don't think my heart can take it."

Emma was fighting to keep tears from her eyes.

"Wait, you're upset because you think that the spell is what caused my behaviour?"

"Well, yeah, you said so yourself…"

Regina smiled that smile that was equal parts hope and vulnerability, and that had Emma falling in love with her all over again every time she got to see it.

"Emma," Regina said, taking a step towards her, "did you not notice that for the entire time I was affected you were the only person I was lusting over? Did you not think there might be a reason for that?"

"Umm…"

She actually hadn't. She didn't quite know where Regina was going with this, but she didn't dare hope it was where she wanted it to.

"And did you not think it was strange that I didn't notice anything was wrong with me until you pointed it out?"

Regina took another step towards her and Emma swallowed hard.

"What are you saying Regina?"

Regina took a few more steps and closed the gap between them so that she was stood right in front of Emma.

"I'm saying that the spell didn't create my desire for you. I have lusted after you for so long, Emma. Everything I said and did is what is always going on in my head, I just normally have enough self-control not to say or do it."

Emma sobbed and lunged towards Regina, wrapping her arms around her neck and pressing their lips together. Regina wrapped her arms around Emma's waist and kissed her back.

She didn't know how long it lasted, but when their lips finally parted Emma was breathless. She rested her forehead against Regina's.

"So… what does this mean?"

Regina's lips curved into a wicked smile.

"It means we should go back to my house immediately, after all, you do still owe me that orgasm…"

Emma crashed their lips together once more in a desperate kiss and summoned her magic. When she pulled away from Regina and opened her eyes they were standing in her bedroom.

Huh. She was getting the hang of this poofing thing.

Now to try that other spell…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT IS FINISHED!!! I can't believe I wrote this entire thing in like a week and a half! *collapses*
> 
> If I ever say that I'm going to start a new multi-chapter fic again I would like you to please slap me in the face with a fish and tell me not be so stupid.


End file.
